In France, the land of Molière, questions of language are so sacred that every Thursday the “immortals,” the guardians of the French language at the Académie Française, meet to discuss — among other things — proposed changes to the institution’s vaunted dictionary.

The last complete edition of the dictionary was published in 1935, according to the academy, and changes evolve over centuries. The newest complete edition is not finished — the authors have reached the letter R.

So it was perhaps not surprising that tempers flared this week after a news report from the broadcaster TF1 that changes were afoot to cut back the circumflex accent, known as “the hat,” from French-language textbooks.

Adding to the horror, the report said that as of September, when the new school year began, teachers would also have to make changes affecting about 2,400 French words, including spelling oignon — or onion — as ognon.

Among the words appropriated from English, news reports noted, the hyphen in week-end would be eliminated, along with the hyphen in tictac (now tic-tac, or ticking, like a clock), while leader would be given a French makeover and be spelled leadeur. Nénuphar, or water lily, would be spelled nénufar.

The reaction on social media was harsh and swift, as intellectuals, teachers and traditionalists took to Twitter to vent their anger at what many saw as an attack on centuries of culture and history.

In a sign of the frenzy inspired by the changes, “Je suis circumflex” became a popular hashtag on Twitter — an allusion to “Je suis Charlie,” the rallying cry used to show solidarity after the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was attacked by terrorists early last year.

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Others were quick to warn of the linguistic perils of losing the circumflex to distinguish between sûr, or sure, an adjective, and, sur, or on, a preposition.

“I am sure your sister is well” and “I am on top of your sister she is well” are not the same thing,” wrote another Twitter user, using a colloquial form of French.

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In 1635, Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister of Louis XIII, established the Académie Française to rule on the usage of the French language.

The 1990 changes that caused all the fuss this week also came up in 2008, when the Education Ministry published a bulletin urging schools to put them in place.

Nicolas Sarkozy was president at the time of that bulletin, which was largely ignored. Another bulletin issued by the ministry to schools in 2015 — this time during the presidency of François Hollande, a Socialist, received a similarly muted reaction.

This latest debate appears to have been reignited when education officials again this year reiterated their plea. Only this time, publishers of textbooks decided to embrace them.

Patrick Vannier, who works in the elite dictionary service of the Académie Française, said by phone from Paris that the backlash appeared to be overwrought. But he said he was heartened that in the age of the iPhone, the French remained so wedded to their dictionaries.

I had years of French in middle/high school, back in the 60s, so I was feeling cocky in the mid-80s, while salmon fishing in rural Gaspé (French Canada), when someone wanted to know how I earned my living.

I assumed the term I wanted must be something like “computeur”, missing, alas, from my too-early-for-tech childhood vocabulary. When that drew a blank look, I tried defining it by famous American companies, like “IBM”. More blank looks.

After long and involved circumlocutions, I eventually stumbled upon the answer: “inordinateur”.

The downside of having a reputation for “precisely the right word” for a thing is not having any alternatives that might actually convey useful meaning in a pinch.

Well, we Germans had our “Rechtschreibreform” about 20 years ago, with some recent updates. And even though it wasn’t mandatory for writing, it is mandatory for teaching in schools.

It created an outcry. The Western civilization was threatened because of it. One famous writer (Günter Grass) threw a public fit (although he had declined the invitation to join the commission working on it). At least one major conservative paper is still using the old version after all these years.

Personally, I simply shrugged and adapted my writing. Most changes were minor, and the one major change was well thought out, or so I believe.

And the Western civilization hasn’t fallen yet. Those few changes in French orthography (which is a pain anyway!) won’t even make it stumble.